Midas

Silenus was missing when Bacchus reached the vineyards of Tymolus and Pactolus. Phrygian rustics found the old companion staggering with wine. They bound him with garlands and brought him to Midas, who recognised him from the rites of Bacchus. Midas welcomed him and kept a feast for ten days and nights. On the eleventh day he returned Silenus to Bacchus. Glad to have his foster-father back, Bacchus offered Midas a favour. Midas asked that everything he touched with his body become gold. The god granted the wish, though he regretted that the king had not asked for something better.

Midas tested the gift on an oak twig, a stone, a clod, ears of wheat and an apple. Each turned to gold. The doorposts shone beneath his touch, and even the water that ran over his hands looked golden. At the table, bread and other food hardened into metal. When he tried to eat, the food shone between his teeth. Drink, too, became gold in his mouth. The abundance he had wanted now kept him from eating or drinking. Midas raised his arms and begged Bacchus to take the gift away. Bacchus told him to wash in the river near Sardis and follow its stream to its source. Midas plunged his head beneath the spring. The power left his body and passed into the river, whose sands took on the colour of gold.